Customer Reviews

11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula

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Another superb CD by "Annonymous 4", these women are some of the best at creating music for the soul. Quite meditative in nature it is truly amazing that this music was written so long ago and continues to inspire. The accompanying booklet gives you plenty of background information on Hildegard von Bingen and why these songs were written. The included artwork is an additional bonus if you're inclined to like the works of Hildegard von Bingen. The music is just sheer beauty, angelic voices in a world of chaos. The music is relaxing and perfect for creative and contemplative moods. The perfect reading music or for that matter anytime the pace needs to be slowed down . It is best listened to to free one's mind of all earthly concerns and to focus on more spiritual matters. An excellent choice for those moments of connecting to the meaning and purpose of our existences.

'11,000 Virgins - Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula' performed by the vocal quartet, Anonymous 4' is 72 minutes of music at least as good as any of their other albums. But, over half of the pieces on this record are by medieval composers OTHER than Fraulein Hildegard. So, the emphasis of the album is much more on 'Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula' than on Hildegard.

This does not disappoint, as the performances are superb, regardless of the composer. My only regret is that the notes did not tell more of the story of the 11,000 virgins. When I was visiting the Rhineland, this was a big local story, even though it happened over a 1,000 years ago, even before Hildegard's time.

But that's minor grousing. This is great music. Buy it if you like Medieval liturgical music!

This Recording is one of many recordings of Saint Hildegard that saturated the music market this year. With the popularity of the Anonymous4, it may become the most known.

The Anonymous4 puts on a performance that is sweet and pure. The intonation qualities are very good. Although the these are a plus, and I do very much admire the Anonymous4. I find this recording to be bland.

I find that Sequentia has a much better grasp on Hildegard's Chants. If you must have an Anonymous4 CD, try An "English Ladymass, or their latest Lammas Ladymass".

The music on this CD comes from the great Hildegard of Bingen, one of the towering female figures from the Middle Ages. Hildegard is not only one of the few women whose name has come down to us from the Middle Ages, but one of the few composers of any sort whose name survives together with his or her compositions. Hildegard was a sort of Renaissance woman before the Renaissance, whose fame spread in her lifetime such that she was advisor of monarchs and popes, as well as a significant creative and mystical figure.

Between 1150 and 1160, she composed and collected poetry and musical works under the title 'Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations'. Much of her music was monophonic in nature, and tied to the liturgy. The Anonymous 4 in their performance sometimes add polyphonic embellishments and vocal drones to chants and psalmody.

Hildegard's abbey possessed relics of St. Ursula, and Hildegard wrote many pieces in honour of the saint to be performed by the women of her abbey. This particular recording of women's voices doing these pieces is therefore quite natural and back to the original intent of Hildegard's compositions.

Hildegard's style is unique, as are the vocal talents of the Anonymous 4 - the combination here is something that approaches perfection.

-- Liner Notes --
This text accompaniment to this disc is very full, so much so that the booklet is not contained within the jewel case, but rather within a slipcover in which both the CD/jewel case and the booklet reside. The liner notes include a description of the work, a brief piece about the quartet, and the lyrics of the songs both in original language and in translation - all repeated in English, German, and French sections.

-- Anonymous 4 --
Contrary to the implication of their name, the Anonymous 4 are not anonymous. This is a vocal quartet made up of Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, and Johanna Rose at the time of this recording (Ruth Cunningham will later go on to a solo career early, and another member will join - Jacqueline Horner). They came together as a formal group in 1986, and have been ensemble-in-residence at St. Michael's Church in New York City, giving concert series in New York as well as throughout North America. They have been featured a number of times on national media in North America as well as Germany. They then went on to yet more success, eventually performing more that 1000 concerts worldwide.

Their specialty is working with chant, monophonic and polyphonic music, and working with medieval texts. According to one source, 'The group takes its name from an anonymous music theorist of the late 13th century, Anonymous IV, who is the principal source on the two famous composers of the Notre Dame school, Léonin and Pérotin.'

The group ended a touring career of nearly two decades in 2004.

As I have said in previous reviews about Anonymous 4, the group does perhaps the best interpretation of the ancient Chants that I have heard. This CD is no exception. It is arranged, as is fitting, into a semi-liturgical format, which means that each chant is serving a real function similar to that which it would have done in its own time. The voices are beautiful; the chants are beautiful. What more could you ask? I would caution, though, if you have ZERO appreciation for antiquity and the austerity of the original chants, this CD will not be for you. It has no instrumetation and interprets the neumes quite simply, letting St. Hildegard's beautiful words and melody make their mark without a whole lot of funny business. Thank goodness.
As a member of a chant schola, the only problem with CD's like this is that I achingly wish that this chant could be used in services more regularly, and in its proper place. It's a tragedy that such music is left out of the Divine Office and Mass.

Hildegard von Bingen composed angelic music, to be performed by angelic voices. Such are the Anonimous 4's. Buy it. listen to it. You'll love it.

The Anonymous 4's interpretation of Hildegard's music, in this case the chants for the Feast of St. Ursula, were so well executed. This album does wonders for the atmoshere these beautiful compositions create. I am particularly interested in medeival chant music, and Anonymous 4 has yet to fail me in the musical genre I deem so crucial to my influence, creativity and life. One must also respect the stories that tie together the music that Anonymous 4 chooses, as the story with the 11,000 virgins is no exception. I am 110% happy with this album and will continue to invest in much of Anonymous 4's amazing works.

I love Anonymous 4! I don't know how they do it, butr each recording is more achingly beautiful than the last. This one is truly superb. I use it to study by, as it's wonderfully calming. Or sometimes we just play it in the house to fill the place with beauty. Buy it, then but all of their other CDs.

This is beautiful music. The four women's voices are so soothing. This is an ideal CD to listen to if for relaxation, meditation, or prayer. I listen to it while I practice yoga. The music is also very important historically, as Hildegard von Bingen is one of the few women composers in the history of Western music. Many of these insipiring tracks were written by her.

This was my first exposure to Anonymous 4, and based on this album I may well come back for more. I actually came to this CD not for the performers, but because I've been on a bit of a Hildegard von Bingen kick lately.

The programming of the CD is first rate. Not all the music is by Hildegard, but the bulk of it is, as the non-Hildegard tracks are often very short responsories. Of the total runtime of over 72 minutes, about 42 minutes is by Hildegard. The rest are anonymous, many of which were taken from the Ahrweil Antiphoner dated in the 13th century.

The reason for this program, according to Anonymous 4, is because Hildegard's chants for the feast of St Ursula -- around which the program is based -- were intended for use in liturgical settings. Here the CD is divided into three sections, for Vigil (aka Matins), Lauds and Vespers. Hildegard's music would have been performed in such contexts.

The one thing that did seem a bit odd and non-period were some polyphonic embellishments to the basic plainchant. Undoubtedly beautiful, I was a bit taken aback by the idea of these additions to the original works from anonymous sources (as well as to the addition of vocal drones to some of Hildegard's pieces). The liner notes do a good job of justifying the polyphony, saying that this particular form, known sometimes as "archaic organum", was in common use in the German-speaking world in medieval times. The embellishments sound great but at times I did feel they may have been taking the music another 100 years or so beyond its date of composition.

Overall a fantastic outing. If you like plainchant performed by female vocalists, getting out of the sometimes male-dominated world of Gregorian chant, you're sure to love this. Outstanding music excellently performed.